Here is Red's part for the story. At least some of the pointers below would be able to clear up some stuffs. It was tough trying to write dialogues whereby Red was included in the conversations without making it seemed as though he didn't exist but I tried to manage somehow ^^"

I DO NOT OWN POKEMON.

Just one glance at Red and anyone would know that he was a man of very few words. Not only was the fact that he would usually utter only a syllable when someone tried to strike a conversation, his eyes showed nothing of the word 'communication' in them. He would always look blankly at whatever was ahead of him. Hardly anything that surrounded him would interest the stoic fellow except for very few exceptions.

Green, Leaf and he had started their journey at the very same time. The three of them remained as close as good friends even though Red hardly talked to them. For some reason, the two of them had became accustomed to his silence and took note more of his actions instead. Although Red and Green didn't start off pretty well due to Green's arrogance, the latter's hard headed personality slowly mellowed after Red took away his Championship title. Green was, of course, peeved at first but began to accept the fact and moved on by taking the role of the Viridian City's gym leader.

Leaf, on the other hand, decided to stick around every now and then. Initially, she planned to go on a journey at the other regions but was called off after she heard that Red decided to glue himself to Mountain Silver for god knows what reason. Leaf almost wanted to nag at Green for not bringing their friend back but Green told her that it was best to leave Red as he is. It was no surprise that Leaf had developed a crush on Red over the time. She would frequently visit Red up at Mountain Silver while occasionally bumping into Gold who visited for the very same reason. However, she was the one who would leave the mountain earlier.

Despite the three of them started off similarly, Red was the one who had never gotten beaten during his journey. Not even Green, who had immediately challenged him into a battle when they had gotten their first Pokemon, could overpower him. Everyone thought of him as a battling prodigy.

It all changed when Gold came along.

The boy was no prodigy. In fact, a lot of people took note of Gold as an easy going and clumsy sixteen-year-old boy. He had times whereby he lost a battle and had times whereby he won. No one expected Red to belong to the latter category but Red, himself, didn't show any displeasure in that. Something Green had to commend him for.

After some time, Gold started to visit Red almost more frequently than Leaf herself. He would chatter the ears out of Red before deciding to drag him down the mountain by force. Although under normal circumstances whereby someone would've fought back, Red didn't. Because he wasn't normal. But that's not the main point.

However this time, Gold hadn't visited.

If it was only a day, no one would've worried. But Gold hadn't made his appearance known for a week now. It was starting to become worrisome for the people around Gold. But the expression of Red's face showed that he wouldn't care or he would've already forgotten that the boy named 'Gold' ever existed in his life.

But his best friend, Green, knew better.

"Red, have you seen Gold around?" Green's voice asked from the PokeGear Red was holding.

"No," he simply replied.

A noise of irritation could be made out from the other line. "Look, Gold's mom came over and told me that she couldn't get into contact with him. We tried visiting his place but there was no sign of him around for the past few days. When was the last time Gold came to find you?"

Red pondered for a moment before replying, "A week."

"And you never noticed Gold was missing?"

"…Yes."

Truth to be told, he did. But it was because Red thought that Gold had gotten tired of looking for him everyday. He thought that Gold had gotten bored of this tiresome routine they were playing. And honestly, Red wanted Gold to get out there and enjoy his life instead of having the unfortunate luck of sticking by boring ol' Red.

Green could only grumble in irritant at his best friend's behavior. Sure, he knew that Red wasn't that heartless to dismiss Gold as something unimportant. But the thing was that if Red truly wanted Gold out of his life just because the latter was being an annoyance, he wouldn't have put up with Gold everyday. Imagine Green's eyebrows rising up in surprise when Gold came over to his gym complaining how Red would leave before sunrise.

He wasn't surprised at the fact that Red left for Mountain Silver. It was that Red would even come down to the town at all.

"We think something might've happened to him. Sure, Gold could be as stupid as running around the region because he was simply bored," Red mentally wanted to object to the 'stupid' part before Green continued. "But he would've never left his PokeGear which is the only connection with his mom."

Red pondered at this fact before Green continued once again.

"And I've heard from some of the citizens that the men in black suits, which I can conclude that it was Team Rocket grunts, was seen patrolling around Mountain Silver again," Green reported. Now that really caught Red's attention. "I didn't tell you before because I knew that you would handle them no problem."

Thanks for the faith in him.

"I would've went up to Mountain Silver to look for any clues but I was told not to leave the gym incase Team Rocket decided to do something. And since you're conveniently up there being bored as usual, go look for Gold," Green finally finished and the call was disconnected before Red could say anything else.

It didn't took Red long to finish fetching his stuffs and Pokeballs before trekking down the summit again. If Green was lying about it and the whole plot was to get Red to get back down for good, he would ask his Pikachu to shock the life out of his best friend and return up to the mountains. But Red knew that Green would hardly joke about someone's safety and this was why, Red finally managed to set his foot at the Upper side of the Mountain.

So far, anything that could serve as a clue would be buried under the piling snow over the week.

He motioned to his partner on his shoulder to do a search on the ground with its nose. Pikachu had gotten accustomed to Gold's smell, which the small critter didn't like it one bit, and was able to sniff the ground with Gold's smell in his memory until it came to a spot.

"Pika, piii!" Pikachu called out as it pawed on the snow.

"Good boy," Red murmured as he knelt on a knee and started to dig on the spot.

It was Gold's PokeGear.

A series of possibilities flowed through his mind. Did Gold fall off the mountain while battling Team Rocket? No, if he did, his mother would've been contacted at the news a few days ago since the officers at the foot of the mountain patrolled often. Team Rocket patrolling at Mountain Silver. Gold coming up here to visit him.

Soon, everything started to piece together in Red's mind. What if Gold had came up here to look for him as usual, get caught up with Team Rocket in the process and somehow had gotten caught by them? Even though Gold had became a better trainer at Red after their battle, Team Rocket had lots of dirty tricks which they could make use of to get away without battling. Plus, Gold didn't have a Pikachu or any other Pokemon with him outside their Pokeball, to assist him before anything happened.

This was bad.

-x-

After Red discovered the PokeGear, he ordered Charizard to give him a ride to Viridian Gym whereby Green, Leaf and him would be meeting. They decided not to inform Gold's mother yet because they didn't want her to hyperventilate. Plus, with Gold in their hands, they knew better than to let the news out to the public and cops in fear of Team Rocket harming Gold because of the publicity. They would have to deal with it in secret.

"What do we do now…?" Leaf asked in worry with her arms crossed tightly below her chest.

"Our first priority is to find where Team Rocket is hiding Gold," Green concluded. "But it'll be as difficult as ever because of their location. No one could've spotted them. Even during our journeys, Red had to find them out by some sort of luck."

"…"

Green furrowed his eyebrows as if searching for a good plan to fish out Team Rocket while Leaf bit her lips in worry for the Johto and Kanto Champion. Red, on the other hand, looked the same as always with a passive look on his face, which screamed that he didn't give a damn.

Red turned his back and started to leave.

"Oi! Are you going to look for Gold on your own?" Green called out.

"Yes."

"But that's dangerous!" Leaf objected while her eyes clouded in worry, "Team Rocket might still be around the region looking for you. If you act alone, it would be one against a whole house of people. The odds are obviously against you."

Green grumbled, "What Leaf said was right. Red, we don't want another person to fall victim. I know you want to look for Gold as soon as possible but just rushing out there wouldn't change a thing. And if we lost you to Team Rocket, it would only make the situation worse."

"I won't," Red reassured firmly. He won't lose to Team Rocket.

"As much as I know how strong you are, you're still against people with handful of dirty tricks up their sleeves," Green pointed out and brought out a hand to silence any protests. "But as I've told you, I know how much you want to look for Gold. So the best thing to do is come up with a backup plan."

Leaf turned to Green incredulously, "You're actually letting Red to go out on his own?"

"I can't leave the gym and you still had to accompany Gold's mom. In addition, only three of us here knew about it," Green summarized before turning back to Red. "Give me Gold and your PokeGear for a moment. The lab had recently discovered a way to track someone down through an application. I'll download for you right away. After that, you can leave."

Red nodded and took off his PokeGear before handing them to Green.

"I'll be right back," Green informed as he took the PokeGears up to where his computer is.

When Green was out of sight, Leaf decided to face Red. "Are you sure you're going to do this by yourself?" Leaf asked and sighed when she got a nod from Red in response. "Well, I would've tried to stop you more but I'm worried about Gold myself. Just… promise me that you will be careful okay? And bring Gold back safely."

Red nodded again.

Leaf provided him with a sad smile before walking out of the gym to return to Gold's home. During this time, Red was left alone pondering about the subject in question while waiting patiently (On the outside at least) for Green to finish working on the PokeGear.

Even though could go overboard with his talking, Red had never expressed any dislike towards it. In fact, he somehow liked it when Gold talked. It was much better than him doing the talking at least and even if he did (Which he never did and would), Gold would overtake the conversation eventually. But for some reason, the sound of Gold's unwavering and strong voice made Red feel comfortable in the inside. As if he was provided music and Gold's voice was music to his ears.

And Gold was just that perfect crack in his hell.

However, even though Red could say that he liked Gold's company, he couldn't help but leave every morning after the day Gold brought him to his apartment. But during nighttime, he would walk down the stairs quietly and sit on the unoccupied space on the couch Gold was sleeping in. He wanted to be near the boy. Just having his scent on the bed wasn't enough to make him feel complete in the house. He often bit his lips while trying to understand why did his mind react this way during the night. But during when he was on Mountain Silver, he could easily clear those thoughts away by training. And for Gold's sake, he would prefer it that way.

Gold seemed to deserve something better outside. He was just fooled by himself to stick to Red. What could Red give him anyway? If Red even refused to give him his voice, surely he would be the last person that should disrupt Gold's world. His perfect, ever changing world.

"Here, I'm done," Green announced as he descended from the stairs and looked around. "Where is Leaf?"

"Left," Red simply replied.

Green shook his head and handed the PokeGear over to Red. "Wear one and put another one somewhere in your clothing. We can't have Team Rocket throwing both away. At least there is a chance whereby they found one, they won't bother to find the other."

Red nodded and put one on an easily spotted area while another in his hidden pocket inside his jacket. With that, he turned his back and walked before Green's voice stopped him again.

"Red," Green called out. "What is Gold to you?"

Red took some time, too long for Green, to response, "…Friend." He simply spoke monotonously and left the gym.

Green shook his head while smiling knowingly at his friend. After knowing Red for a long time, you'd get to know when he was lying or not. To be honest, when Gold had told him that Red stayed over night at his place, he already knew there was something there. If it were only merely friendship, Green or Leaf would've been able to make Red step one foot off the mountain without the other wrenching himself off their hold to walk back to the cave he lived in.

He couldn't help but feel that Gold had a special effect on Red. Something that Leaf didn't.

"Red, you are one lucky guy."

That's all for today. I hope I'm making this fic going down the right way (As in, a smooth and flowing plot). Please review!